


Just A Part Of Nature

by AHeartForStories



Series: Mel's Banned Together Bingo [2]
Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Banned Together Bingo, Bugs, Dead Body, Dead People, Death, Decay, Gen, Nature, contemplations, decomposition, musings, not graphic, worm eats body
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-18
Updated: 2021-01-18
Packaged: 2021-03-17 04:07:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28842846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AHeartForStories/pseuds/AHeartForStories
Summary: Written for Banned Together Bingo. Set after Defenders of Berk. While during a leisure flight across Berk, Hiccup and Toothless come across one unpleasant remnant of Berk's war with the Outcasts.
Relationships: Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III & Toothless
Series: Mel's Banned Together Bingo [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2032876
Comments: 4
Kudos: 18
Collections: Banned Together Bingo 2020





	Just A Part Of Nature

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Banned Together Bingo prompt: "Worm Eats Body".
> 
> I don't expect this one to get a lot of attention. :'D  
> Couldn't get too descriptive with this one.
> 
> Constructive criticism is appreciated!  
> Enjoy!

There is something to be said about growing up in a village that used to turn into a war zone every other week. While it doesn't entirely desensitize one to things such as the injury or death of a loved one, it certainly does take away the shock of seeing an injury or worse.

Now Hiccup, he's had the displeasure of seeing too much in his short 16 years of life, has been through too much. Though he's grown up seeing Gobber with two missing limbs and witnessed the attack that left Bucket in the state he is presently in, he was still heartbroken to find his own leg gone after the Red Death.

He once saw someone burn to death during a raid, too, and decided that this is a fate he doesn't want for himself. It's something he saw together with Fishlegs when they were both around ten and nine years old.

And yet, Hiccup decides what he's looking at now has to be one of the grossest things he's ever seen. So apparently the Dragon Scourge has desensitized him to a lot of things, but not quite this.

The end of Berk's war with both the Berserkers and the Outcasts brought with it a warmer summer, a pleasant thing. But it also brought along a few unpleasant surprises, such as this decaying Outcast lying in a hole somewhere deep in the forests outside of the village.

The hole is kind of hidden by plantlife, so he must've not seen the sudden drop and fallen right in. Probably broke his neck somewhere along the way, judging by the awful angle.

Concealed by the brush and the trees, it's only natural it took this long to find him. And though they were enemies once, Hiccup feels sorry for the dead man.

Toothless rumbles discomfortingly at Hiccup, looking at the boy as he sits in the saddle on his back. It's the dragon who found him, putrid scent plaguing his nose and smelling distinctly human. He wanted to check it out, make sure they weren't about to find a Berkian.

"Yeah, I know, Bud. Not the most pleasant of discoveries, is it?" Hiccup asks as he pats the Night Fury's neck, feeling his own stomach churn in the meantime.

With the warmer summer, more bugs are out. The winter had only been marginally less cold than previous years, but less cold means more eggs survived, more eggs means more larvae, which eventually means more bugs, and that means... Well... It means the gross display of natural decay before them.

It is certainly a sight he won't be forgetting anytime soon, just like the fierce warrior turned into ash right in front of him, just like Bucket's attack.

But figuring that this is still a human being that they've found and they're no longer at war, Hiccup decides the best course of action is to tell his father and see what he has to say about this. Well, tell his father and not eat for the next coming days because he has certainly lost this appetite after seeing that.

There is a specific kind of discomfort Hiccup feels upon seeing this, like he's just seen something he was never meant to see. He's alive and that Outcast is dead and this is something that can happen after death. To think about it, it sends cold chills down his spine.

"Come on, Bud." Directing his dragon away from the discovery in the hole, Hiccup has Toothless face the direction of the village. They have to leave before the stench gets too much for him and he throws up his lunch from not even an hour ago.

He has no idea how unwell this must be making his dragon feel. Toothless isn't showing much besides the telltale signs of discomfort, flat earfins and a very low head.

But they don't quite take off into the sunny day yet.

For how gross and unnerving as this is, isn't this one of the most natural processes in the world? Yeah, the bugs and the decay is gross, but they are just two small parts in the overall workings of their world.

"I guess, this is just how nature cleans up after us, huh." Hiccup muses out loud, giving one last glance to the beautifully green overgrowth hiding something so hideously natural.

Toothless gives his boy a croon in agreement, figuring that Hiccup must be right. This is neither dragon-made, nor man-made, this is something nature conjured up herself.

Facing away from the Outcast and towards the rays of sun up above, the two take off together. They head straight for Berk with the intention to find the Chief.


End file.
